Dismay voiced over Rehoboth 'freedom rally'

By John Perricone | Jul 16, 2013

After four days of rain my wife and I happily headed to Rehoboth Beach on July Fourth to join the throng of those who were delighting in the merriment of sunshine, family, and all that this holiday represents and holds dear.

Imagine our dismay when the tranquility of this occasion was suddenly dismantled by the ramblings of an evangelical zealot who felt it was his mission (with microphone and amplifiers ablaze) to admonish countless unsympathetic ears with his vision of what God both wanted and deemed necessary for our salvation.

Don’t we have churches, mosques, and synagogues for the very purpose of allowing people to freely choose and celebrate what they believe? Was this not one of the many freedoms the Founding Fathers sought to uphold and which we were to celebrate this day?

My question to the organizers of this event is simply this: Why, if the purpose of this gathering was one of honoring our veterans - would you select as your keynote speaker, a presumptuous, fire and brimstone preacher to proselytize his brand of religious dogma for 20 minutes of eternity?

The only option for escaping his wrath would have been for us to literally bury our heads in the sand.